March 31, 2012

For the easily amused

With our late spring there just hasn’t been much in the way of wildflowers appearing yet, but the winter moss is doing extraordinarily well. On the first mile or so of one of my favorite trails today there is a cliffy area where the greens were ever so pretty.

While admiring the moss on the cliff I noticed that there was quite a lot of water dripping through it and then I got sidetracked. What if I could catch a water droplet on a piece of moss? … and here’s where that took me. Sometimes it’s not too bad to be easily amused.

Thanks Bill. I noticed the water dripping there and it made me wonder. When I saw what the lens showed me I became fascinated and kept shooting. I don’t know it that would be considered a tiny ecosystem or not, but certainly a community I would think. Lots of plant life there with the moss and lichens. I would have to guess also microbes and insects. A world only a few inches thick.

I am glad you got sidetracked. It appears it was well worth it. Water can create such lovely effects with reflection, transparency, distortion, and in this case, even some prismic effects. Also the choice of featuring water with the moss is very appropriate since non-vascular plants like moss depend so much on the presence of moisture. Very nice images!

Neat shots, the spring here has come very early. All our trees came into bloom and lots of wildflowers have come up already too… nearly a month early it is really odd.
Annahttp://www.akginspiration.com

I use a Nikon D80, Debby, and a good close-up lens. I consider photography to be a team endeavor, which includes the photographer, the engineers who conceived and designed the equipment and those who view and consider the results.

very cool .. like the 3rd drop the best .. that extra small fraction of a second. The moss is growing great here, too.
But, I was not sidetracked in such a great way as you were. You have inspired me to take a closer look at it.

Your first photo looked, at first glance, to be a marvelous landscape, with a waterfall washing a granite cliff and trees all around. Oops! I don’t know if I’d say these photos are for the easily amused. Maybe I’d say they’re for the “rarely astounded”, because they are astounding, both in their beauty and in the technical accomplishment.

So much of the natural world is astounding, I think. It is equally astounding that we perceive aesthetic beauty in such things, and then I wonder if that perception is a natural part of the whole or a strictly personal reaction.

WOW! These pictures are more than amusing, they’re fascinating! Hubby just told me this weekend as he was out trying to spruce up the yard a little that we have a lot of moss this year. Warm winter may be the cause.